After winning a historic lawsuit, nine victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have finally obtained justice, 17 years after they filed cases against the banana company Chiquita Brands International for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, paramilitary group. According to experts, this verdict represents an important legal precedent in matters of reparation and justice for thousands of other families who have filed similar lawsuits against Chiquita. The victims’ family members will be awarded $38.3 million in compensation. On June 10, a Florida jury ruled that Chiquita knowingly financed the AUC in Colombia’s Urabá and Magdalena regions from 1997-2004. During this time, it was widely known that the group had carried out massacres and violence against civilian communities in and around the banana zones where Chiquita was operating, Marissa Vahlsing, EarthRights International director of transnational litigation, said in a press conference. The ruling is historic because it’s the first time an American jury has held a major U.S. corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses in another country. Image by Dina Paz Cabrera via Pixabay. The jury also rejected that the payments, which totaled at least $1.7 million, were made under duress, as the company had claimed. “This was not, as Chiquita claimed, a relationship of extortion,” Vahlsing said. “This was a partnership, a business partnership where they aligned themselves with a terrorist group that was openly committing atrocities against civilians.” Over the six-week trial, the jury heard testimonies from more than 60 witnesses, including more…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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